EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Critical Success Factors for a Knowledge-Based Economy: An Empirical Study into Background Factors of Economic Dynamism

Patricia Hemert () and Peter Nijkamp
Additional contact information
Patricia Hemert: VU University Amsterdam

Chapter Chapter 4 in Innovation, Growth and Competitiveness, 2011, pp 61-89 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract During the past decade the notion of a knowledge-based economy has gained in popularity. The relationship between knowledge and economic growth is often studied in a conceptual and empirical context by addressing in particular the existence of correlations between factors of growth (on the basis of, for example, the new growth theory or endogenous growth theory). The present paper, however, takes an actor-oriented and more exploratory route to compare the knowledge-drivers in different regions. In our study, a sample of Dutch “knowledge experts” is used to identify the relative importance attached by these key-actors to the various factors that shape the force field of a knowledge-based economy, and their results are compared with those of a larger sample of European “knowledge-experts”. The study in particular distinguishes between developed regions, developing regions, and semi-developed regions. Starting from the notions of mainstream growth theory, a factor analysis is carried out to trace the main determinants of growth. Empirical analysis shows that Dutch experts are of the opinion that economic dynamism is explained by increasing returns to scale and knowledge and business network effects, rather than by international free trade in a global economy. In particular, competitiveness is related to the location of industries and economies of agglomeration (i.e. linkages), whereby also social, cultural and institutional factors in the spatial economy play an important role. Furthermore, statistical regression and multivariate factor analysis show that Dutch experts are supportive of the notion that it is especially the interplay between knowledge development and institutional dynamics which shapes the economic landscape of a particular region. We, therefore, conclude that a more evolutionary view instead of the new trade theory or new economic geography may offer promising new insights.

Keywords: Human Capital; Knowledge Creation; Economic Geography; Opposite Characteristic; Endogenous Growth Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Critical Success Factors for a Knowledge-Based Economy: An Empirical Study into Background Factors of Economic Dynamism (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:adspcp:978-3-642-14965-8_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783642149658

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-14965-8_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in Spatial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-23
Handle: RePEc:spr:adspcp:978-3-642-14965-8_4